year ended March 31, 2000
Ministry Financial Statements
I conducted an audit of the financial statements of the Ministry and the Department of Community Development as at and for the year ended March 31, 2000. My auditor’s report for the Ministry contained an adverse opinion and my auditor’s report for the Department contains a qualified opinion. The auditor’s reports should be read for full details of the reasons for the reservations. On page 264 of this report, I have provided a summary of the reasons for the reservations in my auditor’s reports on the Ministry and Department financial statements.
Scope of audit work In addition to the audit of the Ministry’s financial statements, my staff completed the following work:
• A review of board governance, as part of a follow-up of cross-government recommendations made last year regarding selection and training of board members
• An examination of the systems used by Alberta Social Housing Corporation to forecast housing assistance needs
• A follow-up of the use of official receipts for income tax purposes by the Alberta Sport, Recreation, Parks and Wildlife Foundation
• Specified audit procedures on the Ministry’s key
performance measures reported in its Annual Report for the year ended March 31, 2000
• Audits of the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 cost-sharing claims under the National Housing Act (Canada)
Foundation governance We recommend that the Department review its
relationship with the Ministry’s foundations to determine how the Ministry can best meet its objectives.
The Department supports the foundations by providing administrative services
The Ministry of Community Development seeks to achieve its goals by delivering its programs through a number of entities, including five foundations. The Department supports these entities by providing administrative services. The Department needs to consider how it can best provide support services needed by the foundations.
For example, the Board of the Alberta Sport, Recreation, Parks and Wildlife Foundation sought to obtain legal advice to review a ruling received from Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA) concerning their Donation Fund Program. The initial ruling from CCRA was very restrictive and appeared to directly impact the Foundation’s ability to continue to operate this program. While this issue had direct implications for the Foundation, the Department prevented the Board from seeking legal clarification on the ruling. The Board felt the ability to seek external advice was within its mandate to govern.
The Department needs to review its relationship to the Ministry’s foundations
The Department should review its relationship with the foundations in order to ensure the support it provides is consistent with the desired roles and responsibilities of the foundations.
Housing assistance We recommend that the Ministry of Community Development improve its system to determine housing assistance needs.
The Ministry maintains an infrastructure of
The Ministry provides subsidized housing to Albertans in need. Housing programs are administered by management bodies on behalf of the Ministry. The Ministry maintains an infrastructure of government owned housing projects, and supplies additional housing units through agreements with private landlords. The Ministry also assists in the funding of approved capital projects initiated by management bodies or other community organizations.
Rents have been increasing in Alberta resulting in demand for increased subsidies and increases in the number of families and seniors needing assistance
After a long period of relative stability in the housing market, rents have, for some time now, been increasing in Alberta and this trend seems likely to continue in step with the expanding job market. Increases in housing rents create a demand to increase subsidies to existing low income earners and can also result in increases in the number of families and seniors needing housing assistance. Without good information on the existing and future demand for housing assistance, there is a
problem without having developed a realistic response.
The Ministry is asking municipalities to assess their existing and future housing needs
The Ministry has recognized the urgency to quantify the growing demand for housing assistance. A “Policy Framework” developed for family and special purpose
housing by the Ministry in July 2000 states that “communities must be encouraged to take the lead role in determining their current and future housing requirements.” In effect, the Ministry is asking municipalities to assess their existing housing needs and predict the future demand.
In our view, this approach has considerable merit, as it will enable the Ministry to draw on the local knowledge that the municipalities possess.
The Ministry has not established common standards and a methodology for the assessment of demand
However, while the policy framework contains a vision statement and some guiding principles for the provision of housing assistance, the Ministry has not established common standards and methodology for the assessment of existing need and prediction of future need. Without some uniformity to this process it will be difficult for the Minister to:
• assemble existing and future demand for all municipalities on a comparable basis
• rank individuals and municipalities according to need
The Ministry needs to coordinate the process to assess the demand for housing
Municipalities will need varying amounts of direction depending on their size and abilities in order to produce reliable assessments and predictions. Failure by the Ministry to properly orchestrate the process to assess existing and forecast future demand may result in shortages of safe adequate and affordable housing, which might not be recognized until the problem becomes severe.
The Ministry is developing a policy framework for the delivery of seniors housing programs
The Ministry is in the process of developing a policy
framework for the delivery of seniors housing programs. We have been advised that, as with family and special needs housing, the Ministry intends to involve communities to determine existing demand and forecast future needs. The Senior Housing Division will consult with regional health authorities, Non-Profit Housing sponsors and with the
Ministry’s management bodies. We trust that the Ministry will find our observations on the family and special purpose
housing policy framework helpful to the development of the framework for seniors.
It is critical for the Ministry to be able to assess the existing and future housing needs of those needing assistance
The Ministry must be able to assess existing and predict future housing needs at both a total and community level as the results are crucial to the Ministry’s plans for directing resources to those most in need of housing assistance. As a check on the reasonableness of the information supplied by municipalities, the Ministry should consider tracking and trending economic and other demographic impacts at a local and Province-wide level. The development and use of statistical tools would help in this exercise.